Colonel Schreiber entered a smoke filled room setup similar to the one he left the cadets in to plan their first orders. The main difference was the map had blue pieces all over the board surrounding the Empire's placement with only a ring of red on the inside of the Empire's borders and that the men in the room were all brigadier general at lowest rank instead of merely cadets.

"Ah, Colonel Schreiber. How are our opponents settling in?" Zettour asked with a sly smile to the only other player in the room that knew who they were actually facing.

The Colonel took a moment to think about his answer. "Well. They are settling in well. Anyone here need me to explain the rules? No? Your primary objective is to get the Empire into a position of a forced peace deal. Further objectives will be provided as the game progresses. I will only be accepting written orders for this game."

With one last look at the men in the room who had mostly turned back to their conversations and strategizing for the coming game, the Colonel made his exit to give the men time to write up their instructions.

"Perhaps we should begin with a probing maneuver from Legadonia to see how our opponents react before adding in a second front from Francois," Rudersdorf suggested in a carefully casual manner to hide his attempts to begin this game the same way the Major's proposed war began.

After a short round of muttering it was agreed to begin with that play before the conversation devolved back to rumors and other topics unrelated to the game.

—-

During my time at University, I spent a few semesters overseas in America where I met a few peers that introduced me to a miniature war game called Warhammer. I was already interested in military history by that point and the idea of being able to test out strategies and tactics from the books I was reading greatly intrigued me. In those long gone days, I played the Empire, the most adaptable of the different factions with units of just about every type available.

Even after I moved back to Japan and began my career, I kept up communication with my American contacts. I would trade them some anime and manga I thought they might like and they would send miniatures and updated codices.

Despite the surface similarities though, this game reminded me far more of another game my American contacts played and kept me up to date on the events of. A Dungeons and Dragons Birthright campaign.

In Birthright, they played as lords and rulers of a land while giving orders that would effect their realm. Orders given to their GM who would decide the effects of the orders with charts and dice rolls.

Despite the appearance of a War Game this was a Role Playing Game. If they really wanted to test us on our tactical thinking, then this would be more like Warhammer. No, our knowledge of tactics was not being tested. Our academy was being tested on how effective we could take on the role of commanders and leaders. We had to showcase our knowledge and ability of strategy and logistics. We could not let the academy down... or we would end up on latrine duty with nothing but a toothbrush until graduation.

—-

Cadet Tanya Degurechaff pushed a chair next to the table with the mask on it before climbing up to get a good look at the arrangement of the pieces. The rest of the cadets gathered around the table, trying to think of the first move.

"So, we just need to avoid being occupied and forced into a peace treaty, right?" Cadet Friedrich Fischer asked out loud.

"No. That is the minimum objective," Tanya said looking up at her fellow Cadets who turned to look at the child among them. "If that is all we manage, then we will fail this test. We have to achieve total victory."

"Well, that shouldn't be too difficult. There are barely any enemy forces compared to how many we have," Cadet Karl Franz said, pointing at the pieces on the board.

"No. That is deceptive. Remember that the Colonel said the enemy forces are speculative placement, not that they were complete placements. We are probably only seeing what the units would be able to see," Cadet Fischer corrected.

"That is assuming those are actual units," Cadet Degurechaff added. "They could be false units made of painted plywood for all we know. Probably real for now, but once a war begins we cannot rule out subterfuge."

"We should stay on the defensive initially. We don't know where the first strike is going to come from. If this is to simulate real life, then we should expect the other nations to act separately," Cadet Ernst von Meyer suggested getting a round of agreements.

Cadet Degurechaff hopped down from her chair and grabbed some paper. "We should focus our first orders on improving our logistics and building relations with the Americans."

"The Ameicans? Why?" Cadet Franz asked in disbelief at the notion.

"Grab me that map," Cadet Degurechaff ordered, pointing to a world map that was quickly spread out on the ground, the Unified States of America the focal point of attention. "All along this coast the Americans have docks both for building and holding ships of every size imaginable. In these mountains is a large supply of coal." Cadet Degurechaff pointed to the various features she was discussing. "Here, deep in their heartland, is a major manufacturing city capable of producing steel at an astounding rate. The Americans have every resource they need to supply a war machine, the know how to manufacture faster than any other nation, and the manpower to keep producing. Even if we were to get in a war with Albion and their navy attempted to cut off all our convoys from reaching our shores, the Americans in theory could produce ships faster than the Albish could make ammo to sink the ships."

Cadet Degurechaff looked at the other cadets seriously. "The Americans are a sleeping giant and we want them on our side when they wake up. Until then, we can work on getting a trade agreement with them to build relations and give them incentive to think our success will give them the most profit."

Cadet Herman Weitz grabbed some paper and began to make notes. "Ok, so we send some diplomats to America to open relations. How should we improve our logistics?"

All eyes turned to Cadet Degurechaff. "Copy the Americans and begin standardizing. Standardize our parts so we don't require as many machinists, standardize our packaging, standardize our freight sizes, standardize as much as we can. Even if it will only increase efficiency by five percent, the cost now will save us in the long term.

"Our tanks require post adjustment for simple maintenance and repair. That is not efficient. We should be able to send to the front a crate full of front left armor pieces that are all exactly the same with the exact same bolt holes that we can hot swap onto any of our tanks. Write this to the logistics division and inform them we are willing to delay the implantation of the next generation of equipment if we can get the process in place to create more standardized parts."

Cadet Weitz was writing furiously to translate the spoken orders into instructions for the logistics division while Cadet Degurechaff got back into her chair to stare the board down.

"Anyone know if any of the other nations have been rattling sabers?"

"My uncle mentioned in a letter that the Legadonian Council has been trying to rile up the citizenry," Cadet von Meyer said.

Tanya moved her chair to her a better look at the Legadonian border. "Short border there, easy to concentrate forces for a push. Forested terrain that can hide precise positioning of infantry. Send an extra platoon of artillery and related support along with orders that should there be a border violation, that the border is to be aggressively defended, but to not go on the offensive. The Americans love an underdog and as defenders we will have an easier time looking the part so long as we do not push immediately."

"Why are you so focused on getting the Americans to help?" Cadet Fischer asked.

"The Ford plant is capable of producing a car an hour. Imagine for a moment that's he converted that into tanks, into planes, into war."